1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Glacimarine processes affect about 20% of the global ocean today, and this area expanded considerably under cyclical full-glacial conditions during the Quaternary (Fig. 1) (Dowdeswell et al. 2016b). Many of…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Today, the Greenland Ice Sheet reaches the sea via a number of fast-flowing outlet glaciers that are fed by ice draining from huge interior basins (Rignot & Kanagaratnam 2006). At…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Linear to curvilinear depressions on high-latitude continental shelves have long been regarded as the signature of the ploughing action of iceberg keels impinging on the sedimentary seafloor (e.g. Woodworth-Lynas et…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Fjords are deep valleys that have been flooded by encroaching seawater after ice retreat (Syvitski et al. 1987). They are produced mainly by glacial erosion, with the ice sometimes exploiting…Read more on Nordvestfjord: a major East Greenland fjord system
1 January, 2016 by Adrian Jenkins, Kelly Hogan, Keith Nicholls, Pierre Dutrieux
The huge cavities beneath floating Antarctic ice shelves have only been explored recently by autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Oceanic waters above the in situ freezing point melt those faces of…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Prominent quasi-linear or lobate wedge-shaped sedimentary landforms, termed grounding-zone wedges (GZWs), are distributed widely on polar continental shelves. They are regarded as a product of the deposition of mainly subglacially…Read more on Grounding-zone wedges on the northern Larsen shelf, Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Streamlined sedimentary and bedrock glacial landforms are widespread on high-latitude continental shelves and in fjords. It has been shown that they are orientated in the direction of past ice flow…Read more on Crag-and-tail landforms in outer Rijpfjorden, Nordaustlandet, Svalbard
1 January, 2016 by Philip Leat, Robert Larter
Submarine gullies are small-scale, confined channels on the order of tens of metres depth that form one of the most common morphological features of high-latitude continental slopes. Gully morphology varies…Read more on Submarine gullies on the southern Weddell Sea slope, Antarctica
1 January, 2016 by Philip Leat, Robert Larter
Trough-mouth fans (TMFs) are large depocentres of glacially influenced sediments formed at the mouths of some glacially carved cross-shelf troughs (Vorren et al. 1989). They develop in front of ice…Read more on Components of an Antarctic trough-mouth fan: examples from the Crary Fan, Weddell Sea
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Evidence of the former extent and dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet is preserved on the continental margin of NE Greenland (Fig. 1). The continental shelf is incised by a…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Subglacial landforms include a range of depositional and erosional features formed by the interaction of ice or meltwater with a soft sedimentary or bedrock substrate. The genesis of many such…1 January, 2016 by Dominic Hodgson, Kelly Hogan
Sub-Antarctic South Georgia (54° 17′ S, 36° 30′ W, 3755 km2) is a large heavily glacierized island that is 170 km long, 39 km wide and rises to elevations of…Read more on Terminal moraines in the fjord basins of sub-Antarctic South Georgia
1 January, 2016 by Adrian Jenkins, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, James Smith, Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
About 30% of ice draining the West Antarctic Ice Sheet discharges through several glacier systems into the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) (Fig. 1a). Two major ice-stream outlets, Pine Island and…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Submarine landslide scars, including the huge Hinlopen–Yermak slide-scar north of Svalbard (Fig. 1) (Vanneste et al. 2006; Winkelmann et al. 2006), are relatively common geomorphological features on glaciated continental margins.…Read more on Geomorphology of the huge Hinlopen-Yermak landslide on the northern Svalbard margin
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
Meltwater channels that have formed beneath glaciers and ice sheets have been observed on glaciated terrain, both terrestrial and submarine. Around Antarctica, channels incised into bedrock on the inner continental…Read more on Subglacial meltwater channels in Marguerite Trough, western Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
The Barents Sea is a wide, relatively deep epicontinental sea consisting of shallower banks (c. 50–100 m depth) separated by broad, flat-bottomed troughs (c. 200–400 m depth) that radiate out…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
Large sediment mounds on the continental rise around Antarctica have been interpreted as sediment drifts formed through interaction of downslope transport of mainly glacially derived sediments with alongslope bottom currents…Read more on Large sediment drifts on the upper continental rise west of the Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
The Antarctic Peninsula comprises a thin spine of mountains and islands presently covered by an ice sheet up to 500 m thick that drains eastward and westward via outlet glaciers…1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
The seafloor of inner continental shelves on glaciated margins is sometimes stripped of most of the softer sediments, leaving bedrock exposed (Wellner et al. 2001). Examples of such exposed bedrock…Read more on Bedrock channels in Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Glacial cross-shelf troughs, often hundreds of metres deep and tens to hundreds of kilometres long, are characteristic components of most high-latitude continental shelves (e.g. Anderson 1999). Most Arctic shelves are…Read more on Three cross-shelf troughs on the continental shelf of SW Greenland from Olex data
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan
Acoustically stratified sediments that infill glacially eroded bedrock basins are common in fjords (Seramur et al. 1997; Gilbert et al. 1998; Hogan et al. 2012; Dowdeswell & Vasquez 2013). Internally,…Read more on Stratified glacimarine basin-fills in West Greenland fjords
1 January, 2016 by Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
Most of the West Antarctic continental margin has prograded during Neogene and Quaternary times, due largely to sediment delivery to the shelf break by ice sheets (Larter & Cunningham 1993;…Read more on Debris-flow deposits on the West Antarctic continental slope
1 January, 2016 by Kelly Hogan, Robert Larter
On parts of glaciated continental margins, especially the inner shelves around Antarctica, grounded ice has removed pre-existing sedimentary cover, leaving subglacial bedforms on eroded substrates (Anderson et al. 2001; Wellner…Read more on Crag-and-tail features on the Amundsen Sea continental shelf, West Antarctica
1 January, 2016 by Jeremy Wilkinson, Kelly Hogan
The life history of sea ice is written in its basal morphology. Sea ice progresses through several stages during its lifecycle, including frazil, nilas and pancake ice, until it bonds…Read more on The three-dimensional shape of sea ice revealed by multibeam sonar
1 January, 2016 by Robert Larter
The DRAKE-SCOTIA SEA GATEWAYS is a new multidisciplinary International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) drilling proposal aimed at determining the time of opening and pattern of development of gateways in the…20 December, 2015 by Hugh Venables
The Scotia Sea region contains some of the most productive waters of the Southern Ocean. It is also a dynamic region through the interaction of deep water masses with the…18 December, 2015 by Richard Horne
Fast mode magnetosonic waves are typically confined close to the magnetic equator and exhibit harmonic structures at multiples of the local, equatorial proton cyclotron frequency. We report observations of magnetosonic…Read more on Observations of discrete magnetosonic waves off the magnetic equator
11 December, 2015 by John Turner, Thomas Bracegirdle, Tony Phillips
Climate models exhibit large biases in sea ice area (SIA) in their historical simulations. This study explores the impacts of these biases on multimodel uncertainty in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project…3 December, 2015 by Emily Ludlow, Scott Hosking, Liz Thomas, Rebecca Tuckwell
The Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been losing mass in recent decades; however, long records of snow accumulation are needed to place the recent changes…Read more on Twentieth century increase in snowfall in coastal West Antarctica
3 December, 2015 by Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
Large parts of the Antarctic ice sheet lying on bedrock below sea level may be vulnerable to marine-ice-sheet instability (MISI)1, a self-sustaining retreat of the grounding line triggered by oceanic…1 December, 2015 by Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
454 RNA-Seq transcriptome data were generated from foot tissue of the Antarctic brooding gastropod mollusc Margarella antarctica. A total of 6195 contigs were assembled de novo, providing a useful resource…Read more on Transcriptome of the Antarctic brooding gastropod mollusc Margarella antarctica
1 December, 2015 by Xin Yang
At present, anthropogenic halogens and oceanic emissions of Very Short-Lived Substances (VSLS) are responsible for stratospheric ozone destruction. Emissions of the, mostly long-lived, anthropogenic halogens have been reduced, and as…Read more on Oceanic bromine emissions weighted by their ozone depletion potential
1 December, 2015 by Katrin Linse
Hydrothermal vents on mid-oceanic ridges are patchily distributed and host many taxa endemic to deep-sea chemosynthetic environments, whose dispersal may be constrained by geographical barriers. The aim of this study…1 December, 2015 by Elisabeth Biersma, Peter Convey
The extreme polar environment creates challenges for the resident invertebrate communities and the stress tolerance of some of these animals has been examined over many years. However, although it is…1 December, 2015 by Roger Worland, Peter Convey
As small bodied poikilothermic ectotherms, invertebrates, more so than any other animal group, are susceptible to extremes of temperature and low water availability. In few places is this more apparent…Read more on Responses of invertebrates to temperature and water stress: A polar perspective
1 December, 2015 by Iain Staniland
Despite global declines in the abundance of marine predators, knowledge of foraging ecology, necessary to predict the ecological consequences of large changes in marine predator abundance, remains enigmatic for many…1 December, 2015 by Zhaomin Wang
Surface roughness which partitions surface net radiation into energy fluxes is a key parameter for estimation of biosphere–atmosphere interactions and climate variability. An earth system model of intermediate complexity (EMIC),…Read more on Contribution of surface roughness to simulations of historical deforestation
1 December, 2015 by Dominic Hodgson
Higher homologues of widely reported C86 isoprenoid diglycerol tetraether lipid cores, containing 0–6 cyclopentyl rings, have been identified in (hyper)thermophilic archaea, representing up to 21% of total tetraether lipids in…1 December, 2015 by Dave Munday, Dani Jones
On planetary scales, surface wind stress and differential buoyancy forcing act together to produce isopycnal surfaces that are relatively flat in the tropics/subtropics and steep near the poles, where they…Read more on Planetary-geometric constraints on isopycnal slope in the Southern Ocean
1 December, 2015 by David Jones, Michael Rose
The Halley VI Antarctic Research station was designed as a series of linked, ski-mounted modules. This makes it possible to relocate the station in the event that changing Antarctic conditions…1 December, 2015 by Emilie Capron
The Last Interglacial (LIG) represents an invaluable case study to investigate the response of components of the Earth system to global warming. However, the scarcity of absolute age constraints in…1 December, 2015 by Philip Trathan
The relationship between ammonia (NH3) concentrations downwind from a penguin colony and local surface greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes was investigated on the remote sub-Antarctic Bird Island (54°00′S, 38°03′W) during summer…1 December, 2015 by Dani Jones, Richard Phillips
Rationale The main limitation of isotopic tracking for inferring distribution is the lack of detailed reference maps of the isotopic landscape (i.e. isoscapes) in the marine environment. Here, we attempt…1 December, 2015 by Lloyd Peck, Michael Thorne, Melody Clark
Background The capacity of marine species to survive chronic heat stress underpins their ability to survive warming oceans as a result of climate change. In this study RNA-Seq and 2-DE…1 December, 2015 by Martin Wearing, Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
We investigate the relationship between four ice-shelf characteristics in the area close to the calving front: ice flow speed, strain rate, ice thickness and shelf width. Data are compiled for…1 December, 2015 by Eugene Murphy
The Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) project aims at developing a comprehensive understanding of and accurate predictive capacity of ocean responses to accelerating global change and the consequent…Read more on IMBER – Research for marine sustainability: Synthesis and the way forward
1 December, 2015 by Hua Lu, Ian White, Tony Phillips
Wave–mean flow interactions associated with the Holton–Tan effect (HTE), whereby the tropical quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) modulates the Northern Hemisphere wintertime stratospheric polar vortex, are studied using the ERA-Interim dataset. Significant…1 December, 2015 by Pierre Mathiot
The Younger Dryas cooling event disrupted the overall warming trend in the North Atlantic region during the last deglaciation1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Climate change during the Younger Dryas…Read more on Multiple causes of the Younger Dryas cold period
1 December, 2015 by Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Peter Ward, Ryan Saunders, Simeon Hill
Myctophids are the most abundant mesopelagic fishes in the Southern Ocean, although their trophic role within the predominantly krill-based food web in regions south of the Antarctic Polar Front (APF)…1 December, 2015 by Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Antarctica contains some of the most challenging environmental conditions on the planet due to freezing temperatures, prolonged winters and lack of liquid water. Whereas 99.7% of Antarctica is permanently covered…Read more on Mitochondrial DNA analyses reveal widespread tardigrade diversity in Antarctica
1 December, 2015 by Mervyn Freeman
We present a new quantitative technique that determines the times and durations of substorm expansion and recovery phases and possible growth phases based on percentiles of the rate of change…28 November, 2015 by Mark Clilverd
Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves are thought to be important drivers of energetic electron losses from the outer radiation belt through precipitation into the atmosphere. While the theoretical possibility of…Read more on High-resolution in situ observations of electron precipitation-causing EMIC waves
27 November, 2015 by Ingrid Cnossen
This special issue bundles some of the latest results on decadal-scale variations in the stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and ionosphere, following on from the 8th Workshop on Long-Term Changes and Trends…18 November, 2015 by Andrew Gray
Recent research has tried to calculate the "total cost of publication" in the British academic sector, bringing together the costs of journal subscriptions, the article processing charges (APCs) paid to…Read more on Considering Non-Open Access Publication Charges in the “Total Cost of Publication”
13 November, 2015 by David Barnes
The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is one of the three places on Earth that registered the most intense warming in the last 50 years, almost five times the global mean. This…Read more on Climate change and glacier retreat drive shifts in an Antarctic benthic ecosystem
13 November, 2015 by Emily Shuckburgh
In the last century, the Earth has undergone a very fast and unusual change in the radiative forcing of its climate, resulting from human actions. This change in forcing has…Read more on Feedbacks on climate in the Earth system: introduction
1 November, 2015 by Hugh Venables, Michael Meredith
Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for phytoplankton, and is scarce in many regions including the open Southern Ocean. The western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), an important source region of Fe…1 November, 2015 by Peter Convey
Sea ice algae are primary producers of the ice-covered oceans in both polar regions. Changes in sea ice distribution are potentially altering exposure to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and ultraviolet-B…Read more on Aspects of resilience of polar sea ice algae to changes in their environment
1 November, 2015
Tracking studies normally focus on long-distance migrants, meaning that our understanding about short-distance migration remains limited. In this study, we present the first individual tracks of the Eurasian golden plover…1 November, 2015 by Alex Burton-Johnson, Teal Riley
The allochthonous terrane accretion model previously proposed for the geological development of the Antarctic Peninsula continental margin arc is reviewed in light of recent data and the geology is reinterpreted…1 November, 2015 by Richard Phillips
1. There is growing interest in the effects of wind on wild animals, given evidence that wind speeds are increasing and becoming more variable in some regions, particularly at temperate…Read more on Contrasting responses of male and female foraging effort to year-round wind conditions
1 November, 2015 by Christopher Darvill
The timing and extent of former glacial advances can demonstrate leads and lags during periods of climatic change and their forcing, but this requires robust glacial chronologies. In parts of…1 November, 2015 by Dave Munday
The influence of different wind stress bulk formulae on the response of the Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes is investigated using an idealised channel model. Surface/mixed layer properties…1 November, 2015 by Catharine Horswill, Iain Staniland, Norman Ratcliffe, Philip Trathan, Simeon Hill, Stacey Adlard
Aim To infer the potential for competition between an important Antarctic predator, the macaroni penguin, and the krill fishery by examining the spatial overlap in prey consumption and catches. Location…1 November, 2015 by Gareth Marshall
We examine trends in the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), and the strength, position and width of the Southern Hemisphere surface westerly wind jet in observations, reanalyses and the Coupled Model…Read more on Comparing trends in the Southern Annular Mode and surface westerly jet
1 November, 2015 by Carlos Martin Garcia, Hamish Pritchard, Jonathan Kingslake, Keith Nicholls, Richard Hindmarsh, Robert Mulvaney, Richard Hindmarsh
Locally grounded features in ice shelves, called ice rises and rumples, play a key role buttressing discharge from the Antarctic Ice Sheet and regulating its contribution to sea level. Ice…1 November, 2015 by Hua Lu
Since the pioneering work of Bagnold in the 1940s, aeolian research has grown to become an integral part of earth-system science. Many individuals have contributed to this development, and Dr.…Read more on A tribute to Michael R. Raupach for contributions to aeolian fluid dynamics
1 November, 2015 by Peter Convey
Antarctica is an isolated continent whose conditions challenge the survival of living organisms. High levels of endemism are now known in many Antarctic organisms, including algae, tardigrades, nematodes and microarthropods.…Read more on Antarctic bdelloid rotifers: diversity, endemism and evolution
1 November, 2015 by Dominic Hodgson
Substantial parts of the beds of glaciers, ice sheets and ice caps are at the pressure melting point1. The resulting water harbours diverse subglacial microbial ecosystems2, 3 capable of affecting…Read more on Rock comminution as a source of hydrogen for subglacial ecosystems
1 November, 2015
The future ice dynamical contribution to sea-level rise (SLR) from 210 ice shelf nourishing drainage basins of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS) is simulated, using the British Antarctic Survey…Read more on Modelling ice dynamic contributions to sea level rise from the Antarctic Peninsula
1 November, 2015 by Daniel Bannister, John King
Average summer temperatures over South Georgia have risen by 1°C along with an increase in the rate of glacial retreat since the 1920s. Glaciers on the northeast of the island…Read more on Föhn winds on South Georgia and their impacts on regional climate
1 November, 2015 by Geraint Tarling
Studies carried out on a wide variety of Arctic species during the polar night reveal continued feeding, growth and reproduction, changing our view of this period from one of biological…Read more on Marine ecology: a wonderland of marine activity in the Arctic night
1 November, 2015 by David Vaughan, Hugh Corr, Keith Nicholls
The ApRES (autonomous phase-sensitive radio-echo sounder) instrument is a robust, lightweight and relatively inexpensive radar that has been designed to allow long-term, unattended monitoring of ice-shelf and ice-sheet thinning. We…1 November, 2015 by Dominic Hodgson
Background and aims – Non-marine diatom communities in the Antarctic Region are characterized by a typical species composition, dominated by a large number of Antarctic endemic species. Despite recent advances…30 October, 2015 by Markus Frey
Unraveling the modern budget of reactive nitrogen on the Antarctic plateau is critical for the interpretation of ice core records of nitrate. This requires accounting for nitrate recycling processes occurring…16 October, 2015 by Andrew Kavanagh
Modeling results have suggested that the circulation of the stratosphere and mesosphere in spring is strongly affected by the perturbations in heating induced by the Antarctic ozone hole. Here using…16 October, 2015 by David Newnham, Mark Clilverd
Magnetospheric substorms drive energetic electron precipitation into the Earth's atmosphere. We use the output from a substorm model to describe electron precipitation forcing of the atmosphere during an active substorm…Read more on Substorm-induced energetic electron precipitation: Impact on atmospheric chemistry
13 October, 2015 by Daniel Bannister
South Georgia is a small and mountainous island, located in the remote Southern Ocean. The island’s subantarctic climate is controlled by its location and steep orography; with 19 peaks over…Read more on Föhn winds on South Georgia and their impact on regional climate
4 October, 2015 by Martin Black, Peter Convey, Peter Fretwell
On the Antarctic Peninsula, lichens are the most diverse botanical component of the terrestrial ecosystem. However, detailed information on the distribution of lichens on the Antarctic Peninsula region is scarce,…1 October, 2015 by Peter Convey
Seabirds are among the most important vectors transferring biogenic compounds from the sea onto land in the polar regions and, consequently, influencing the properties of soil and vegetation. We studied…1 October, 2015 by Rosey Grant
The planar fit (PF) method is often recommended for long-term eddy covariance flux measurements because it offers a number of advantages over rotating into streamwise coordinates. For sites over complex,…Read more on A new continuous planar fit method for calculating fluxes in complex, forested terrain
1 October, 2015
The identification of year-round geographical ranges and the quantification of the degree of migratory connectivity are fundamental to the successful conservation of migratory bird populations. The Stone-curlew Burhinus oedicnemus is…1 October, 2015 by Jeremy Wilkinson
Small-scale (~100 to 200 m) deformations of an Arctic sea ice floe were detected from multiple GPS-equipped buoys that were deployed on the same ice floe. Over a nine-month period…Read more on Small-scale deformation of an Arctic sea ice floe detected by GPS and satellite imagery
1 October, 2015
So, what does a doctor on a Sub-Antarctic research station do with only 11 young and fit people as potential patients? I get asked that a lot and I’ll endeavour…1 October, 2015 by Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
Reconstructing the growth and decay of palaeo-ice sheets is critical to understanding mechanisms of global climate change and associated sea-level fluctuations in the past, present and future. The significance of…Read more on On the reconstruction of palaeo-ice sheets: Recent advances and future challenges
1 October, 2015 by Kelly Hogan
Mapped topographic features are important for understanding processes that sculpt the Earth's surface. This paper presents maps that are the primary product of an exercise that brought together 27 researchers…Read more on Manual mapping of drumlins in synthetic landscapes to assess operator effectiveness
1 October, 2015 by Gareth Marshall, Paul Holland, Pierre Mathiot, Joakim Kjellsson
We examine the sensitivity of the Weddell and Ross seas to vertical mixing and surface freshwater forcing using an ocean–sea ice model. The high latitude Southern Ocean is very weakly…1 October, 2015 by Ed King
The measurement of ongoing ice-mass loss and associated melt water contribution to sea-level change from regions such as West Antarctica is dependent on a combination of remote sensing methods. A…1 October, 2015 by Katrin Linse
Recently discovered hydrothermal vent fields on the East Scotia Ridge (ESR, 56–60°S, 30°W), Southern Ocean, and the South West Indian Ridge (SWIR, 37°S 49°E), Indian Ocean, host two closely related…Read more on A new genus of large hydrothermal vent-endemic gastropod (Neomphalina: Peltospiridae)
1 October, 2015 by Geraint Tarling, Gabriele Stowasser, Peter Ward, Ryan Saunders
This study investigated spatial and temporal patterns in distribution, population structure and diet of Bolin's lanternfish Protomyctophum bolini, Tenison's lanternfish Protomyctophum tenisoni and gaptooth lanternfish Protomyctophum choriodon in the Scotia…Read more on Trophodynamics of Protomyctophum (Myctophidae) in the Scotia Sea (Southern Ocean)
1 October, 2015 by Robert Arthern
Ice-sheet models can be used to forecast ice losses from Antarctica and Greenland, but to fully quantify the risks associated with sea-level rise, probabilistic forecasts are needed. These require estimates…1 October, 2015 by Eugene Murphy
Analyses of satellite-derived chlorophyll data indicate that the phase of rapid phytoplankton population growth in the North Atlantic (the ‘spring bloom') is actually initiated in the winter rather than the…